There are many health benefits to improving your gut health
For example, you may lose weight, have clearer skin, and feel better mentally. This essay is about several simple habits that we frequently forget about that we need to work on and cultivate to have good digestion. These seven healthy practices can help your gut get better and your microbiota grow back. This topic isn’t only about a healthy gut diet, because what works for one person may not work for another.
Fundamentals of Gut Health
Let’s start with the bare fundamentals. Let’s begin with the one thing that a healthy stomach is good for. Breaking down food.
But let’s do some more investigation. What is food, really? Well, based on my very accurate Google investigation, this is what it is.
You know, food is essentially just fuel. Food is necessary for life.
But food is useless unless we can break it down. If we couldn’t break down the food we eat into its extremely little parts, called nutrients, it would be meaningless.
Our cells and bodies need nutrition to work properly. We need them for energy, to keep our bodies working, and to be able to walk, talk, think, and do everything.
If you threw a piece of broccoli at a cell without breaking it down into its nutrients, the cell wouldn’t know what to do with it.
And here we are. Evolution came up with a solution (oh my god, it rhymes) that is much better than anything a dietician or drug corporation could ever produce.Your GI tract, or gastrointestinal tract.We don’t think about it much when we eat burgers at McDonald’s, but that system inside your body does a lot of things.
The GI tract’s main job is to take the food we buy, cook, or plant, break it down into its parts, and give those parts to the body along with water and electrolytes so that it can live.
If that doesn’t happen, if we don’t acquire those nutrients, our bodies won’t have anything to work with and we’ll literally fall apart.
So, people aren’t being too theatrical when they say that most diseases originate in an unhealthy gut (but it is a touch dramatic). Your body won’t obtain the nourishment it needs every day if your gut isn’t working appropriately.
Health issues when your gut isn’t healthy
- being overweight, anxious, or depressed
- pimples
- long-term inflammation
- not enough immune function heart disease
How to fix your gut so you can lose weight, have better skin, and a healthier brain
Now let’s look at some simple and free things you may do to make your gut healthier.
1. Chew
Along the way, we forget that our mouths do more than only talk and taste food. The mouth is the first element of your digestive system. We break down food there with our teeth, tongue, and a lot of saliva. To be precise, between 0.75 and 1 liter of saliva every day is interesting. Saliva is an important aspect of digestion because it has natural disinfectants (such IgA and lysozyme) and enzymes that help break down food so that the stomach can process it further.
If you don’t chew your food and break it down into a very smooth consistency, your stomach, small intestine, and large intestine will have to work harder to digest and absorb something from that piece of carrot you didn’t chew.
I don’t do this perfectly, and I don’t chew nearly enough. But I started doing it after I read more about it. I told myself that I would chew each bite at least 15 times. I usually only eat 4–5 times, so this is a significant stride for me.
Do you know what happened?
- I don’t want to eat that much since it gets monotonous.
- Fruit and vegetables are the only items that taste excellent when you chew them more than twice. No joke, attempt to chew a cupcake 15 times. That’s gross.
- I can’t eat so much food at once. I need to eat smaller portions so I can swallow and not choke, which helps me eat less. And if you read this article, you already know that it helps you live longer.
So, if you want to lose weight, get better skin, and have a healthy brain, I strongly suggest that you start chewing more. Start with ten times and then do more. I want to reach 30.
2. Try to calm down
You may have heard of the gut-brain axis and how your gut health influences your brain. Here’s an article on it. We know that there is a link between your stomach and your brain health, but we don’t know much more than that right now. I mean, no, there isn’t a bad bacteria in your gut that tells your brain what to do or not do.
It’s a lot more complicated than that. You don’t suddenly get depressed after eating something unhealthy and your gut bacteria changes. Life is more than simply food, after all.
So what I mean is that stress may also change the bacteria in your gut and how many different kinds of bacteria are in there. This can then change your mental health. It’s a lot like a circle.
So do your best to eat well and lower your stress levels. Take a stroll every day, hang out with people who make you happy, don’t worry about the little things, and realize that everything will pass.
3. Get going
Exercise is another activity that can change your gut health and the bacteria that live in it. Researchers have found that exercise can modify the gut microbiota of mice. These changes are different from the changes that happen when you change your diet. (study)
Regular exercise has been demonstrated to lower the risk of colon cancer as well. (study)
So keep moving all day, don’t sit for long periods of time, and walk more.
4. Try fasting for short periods of time
I talked about how eating less and spacing out your meals can assist your gut mend and recover, but it turns out that this is also true.
In reality, intermittent fasting changes the types of bacteria in your gut, which can then have an effect on your skin, weight, and brain health. I think the simple 16:8 hour split (16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating) works best for me when I do intermittent fasting.
5. Sleep
It’s not good to sleep only six hours a day for a week. Getting enough sleep is probably the best thing you can do for your body to recuperate. It helps you get well. It’s necessary for your immune system, which is also linked to living longer, to fix the damage that happens to our bodies every day. Your gut and microbiome are no different.Here are seven things you can do to get better sleep.
6. Drink enough water
And when I say that, I mean drink water and eat more meals that have water in them, such fruits and vegetables. You might be drinking water, but if you’re also eating foods that dry you up, like coffee, chocolate, soy sauce, or fried food, you’re not helping your gut or skin health.
So make sure to consume more foods that keep you hydrated, such lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and broccoli. Most vegetables you know are good for you.
7. Pick the correct diet for you
Only you can figure out what diet works best for you when it comes to digestion. Some people require more fiber than others, yet some people don’t fare well with so much fiber. Some people feel fine on a vegan diet, while others favor the paleo diet. Both are recognized to be good for the microorganisms in your stomach. But you don’t have to follow either of these diets to be healthy.
Animal products usually hurt the gut microbiome, while plants usually help it.
You should also look into eating fermented foods like sauerkraut, yogurt, and kimchi, which are good for your gut.
Be aware of how different foods affect your body and make these practices a part of your daily life. If you see that something isn’t working for you, don’t keep eating it. Not worth it. Eat more of the meal that gives you energy.
